On Friday, 50-year-old truck driver Roumen Todorov Velkov, pleaded guilty to to five counts of involuntary manslaughter for an October 2010 crash that killed five people, the Charlotte Observer reported.
The crash occurred at approximately 11:00 p.m., on October 24, 2010, on Interstate 26, near the Butler Bridge Road overpass, in North Carolina.
Authorities said Velkov was headed east on I-26 when his truck plowed into a line of cars that had stopped because of an earlier accident. Investigators said they found the truck’s speedometer stuck at 70 mph. They believe Velkov had dozed off just before the crash.
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Witnesses said that Velkov was driving erratically before the crash. A witness who testified at trial said Velkov passed her at a high-rate of speed– and narrowly missed side swiping her car– just 11 miles before the crash.
Velkov was sentenced to between 48 months and 60 months in prison. He was originally facing up to a 25-year prison sentence.